How That Fraud Works And What You Can Do About It

By Odesi Desko

Hitman scams are a somewhat recent phenomenon in the world of con artists. More and more instances of these scams are occurring, and people have to find out what they can do. It's easier than ever to acquire email addresses of people that you don't know, which scammers use to their advantages.

The writer e-mails the mark, states that they have been hired to kill the recipient, but feel bad about carrying out the contract so will not do it if they are paid a certain amount of money. Naturally, this is a shock to the person receiving the e-mail. On average several thousands of dollars are lost if a person falls for this scam.

People become afraid, and that's how the criminal succeeds. The prevalence of television has familiarized us with the concept of the hitman or hired gun. Most people don't have to experience this, as they have no reason to fear doing something so bad that warrants execution.

Some people who have received these e-mails have responded by sending the money demanded. Others have been smart enough to turn the e-mail over to the proper authorities. Anyone receiving these threats should do the same thing.

There's a variant of this scam that comes in the form of an email claiming to be from a police department. The email states that your name is on a list for potential murders or attacks. Personal information is then solicited from the recipient. All this serves to do is give the scammer all the means to steal your identity. As a result, you should use info-trace.com/area-code-660.jsp or another telephone look-up service to verify the validity of these callers or email senders, so you can rest assured that it's a scam.

The personal information gleaned from the victim can be used to clear out the bank accounts and credit cards of the person, robbing them of all their money. The victim's credit record is a complete loss, and they become absolutely broke with no funds to speak of.

It is expected that this scam will become more prevalent as time goes on. A way to prevent this is to refuse to open any e-mail where the sender is not known. Even if the e-mail seems to be from a well-known company, if not doing current business with them, the best advice is to delete that e-mail without opening it. Scammers are now altering well-known business names such as WalMart and Yahoo in order to gain access to users' accounts.

It is very important to remember that your e-mail is private, just as your regular postal mail. Even though, through modern technology, that account can be surveyed, it can only allow the scanner in if you open his e-mail. The rule of thumb, to avoid scams like the hitman, is to use the delete key. - 29941

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